OK; two small ones down, one great big one to go

At breakfast last Wednesday the chief executive of a leading property company lent forward and suggested that Rockspring were well worth watching. Indeed. This morning comes news in the Telegraph that the fund manager run by Richard Plummer and Robert Gilchrist has spent £268m (not £265m) of the Korean state pension fund's money on two office blocks. 

The Sloane Square-based fund that has 5bn Euros of stock under management has paid ING Real Estate £183m for 88 Wood Street (pictured) in the City, a newish 247,000 sq ft multi-let block; and bought Invista's 50% interest for £85m in 40 Grosvenor Place, the Grosvenor development opposite Buckingham Palace that once famously held Enron.

This is pretty quick work for Rockspring who only announced the Korean tie up on mid-September. But clearly there is more to come. In May Plummer hired Hugh Elrington, an ex-CBRE man who was MD of Pensus Fund Management. Of even more interest is the hiring of Ed Craston three weeks ago, who spent a very uncomfortable couple of years at Lehman Brothers after being lured from his natural home at UBS in 2006, where he was European head of real estate.

Craston is well-known, well liked and will no doubt be instrumental in closing a few more deals for the Koreans over the next year or so. Which brings to mind the biggest deal of all the Koreans are supposed to be doing: the £800m purchase of the HSBC Tower in Canary Wharf. The deal was said to have been close to signing at the end of September. Have the Malaysians made a counter bid? Rockspring are not involved. But perhaps they need Ed to come in and close that deal.